


burning angel wings to dust

by Shadaras



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Flash Fiction, Gen, backstory retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 16:11:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12391569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/pseuds/Shadaras
Summary: Michael Burnham is an angel.





	burning angel wings to dust

Michael Burnham is an angel.

Sarek had to mind-meld with her to get her to return to the material plane instead of just seeing _DEATH DEATH DEATH_ all around her, as a child. Her PTSD is PTSD, yes, but it’s also when she remembers how to look at the world the way an angel does, seeing life and light and glory and the inevitability of death on everyone.

...she doesn’t like Saru any more for being able to understand everything his threat ganglia sense. She hates it, because they’re a reminder of something that should come easily to her, but doesn’t anymore, not since everything got mixed up with the scent of ash and the _crack-boom-pop_ of lasers firing and shields failing and bombs falling all around her as a child, not since the last memory she has of her parents are of three faces frozen in screams and burnt, rent and torn by the explosion that felled their house. (She was only safe because her parents sheltered her with their bodies, kept anything from touching her with their last breaths.)

Michael Burnham is an angel, and when Phillipa Georgiou dies in front of her and she kills T’Kuvma in a blast of righteousness before _Shenzhou_ ’s transporters tear her away, she falls.

Her falling isn’t noticeable to anyone else. They’d say she fell earlier, when she started interfering to try and save everyone’s lives. She doesn’t care; it doesn’t need to be noticeable to anyone else. Falling is about despair. About giving up. About accepting punishment.

(Here’s the thing about _Discovery_ : It’s a second chance, yes. It feels just as much like it’s a trap.)

She can’t stop looking now. Even with all the training, she can’t stop looking, can’t stop from wanting to reach out and ease suffering, or end a life that will only continue to cause strife and pain.

It’s... unfortunate, that _Discovery_ wants to build up that second side of her more.


End file.
